HOW AIR CANADA RUINED CHRISTMAS FOR MANY PEOPLE IN MY COUNTRY
It is a long story. I will try to write it all.
Our plane was supposed to leave for Toronto at 3pm today. There have been lots of delays due to the weather, so we got there early to make sure we got checked in and stuff, because traffic at the airport was supposedly crazy due to the season and layovers and stuff.
We waited in line 45 minutes to get checked in. We did so successfully. We went to our gate! There was a plane there. We found out every plane to Toronto had been canceled today, except for ours. "But for the grace of God!" Said us, "We are so lucky to be on this plane!"
A woman started boarding our plane! It was excellent. "We will begin boarding in a moment, have your passes and IDs ready please!" She said. "Oh, lovely!" said I. I called my mother to happily inform her that we were about to get on the plane, no problem. "Oh, good!" She said. "I was worried!"
A few minutes go by and the lady comes on again. "I'm sorry!" She says, "I was wrong. This is not our plane after all. You must go to gate C51! This plane here has too much fuel." A lot of people start groaning and bitching. I thought this was a bit of an overreaction. "All they have to do is walk to another gate, why must they complain so?" I said to Malcolm, confounded.
We arrived at our new gate to find hundreds of people sitting and waiting. There was nowhere for us to sit, even on the floor. There was nobody at the desk at this gate, and people looked quite unhappy. Again, there was a plane at this gate. "This is your plane!" The lady on the announcements said. We asked some other people about why there were so many people waiting, and were told that these were all the people from the earlier canceled flights, and they were on standby and trying to get on our plane. "Oh, that is so sad! Those poor people!" I said.
After waiting for about half an hour, a lady finally walked up to the desk. She was quite surprised that nobody else was here, helping us and updating us. She immediately made an announcement: "Don't worry! That is your plane! We will begin boarding in...wait, why are they pulling the bridge from it?" She made a phone call and came back on the intercom: "I am so sorry!" She said, sounding sorry indeed. "That is not your plane! That plane is going to go away and a new plane will come and then we will board. Our plane will be about 45 minutes late, I apologise profusely!"
Oh, well, that was unfortunate. But we were cheerful enough. We were glad that of all the planes to Toronto today, our was the only one flying. Meanwhile, all the standby people were told that the plane was now full, and that they should give up and go wait in a different waiting area. At this point many people burst into tears and got very angry. It turned out that some of them were trying to get home with babies; one couple had flown in from Brisbane that morning to visit their daughter in Toronto, and they were now being told that they would not make a plane until after Christmas.
After listening to all these sad stories and feeling very bad for these people, we sat. And waited. For a long time. The screen at the desk that told us the time our plane was delayed until went blank. The woman behind the desk disappeared. Suddenly, a lot of people start getting text messages: Apparently our plane has been canceled too. About an hour later, after waiting and wondering with absolutely nobody to advise us, finally a group of stern-faced ladies came and told us the following:
*The plane was canceled.
*They didn't know why. Maybe weather. They might also be out of de-icing fluid.
*All the rest of the planes flying to Toronto before Christmas were full.
*No, we could not get our money back. Well, maybe, if we had good insurance.
*Our best bet was to get a hotel and wait until after Christmas.
As one can imagine, this provoked a lot of crying and anger and yelling. People were not happy. Maybe people were now stranded in Vancouver, with no family around, nowhere to stay, and no hopes of getting home for Christmas.
Malcolm and I were very sad, and very angry. However, we recognised that at least we are "stranded" in our city of residence, and while we could just go home and feel sorry for ourselves, most of these people were out of luck for the holidays. We were very disappointed that we wouldn't make it to Toronto (where his entire paternal family is gathered for a Christmas reunion), but acknowledged our fortune. So we had a cry and a sulk, and trotted off to find our luggage.
The luggage area was a madhouse. There were bags literally everywhere: on the carousels, the seats, piled all over the floor, and there were hundreds of people searching amongst the piles for their bags. "Oh fun," we said. After an hour or so of searching fruitlessly, an announcement came on. "Passengers of flight 1168 to Toronto!" it said, "Mr. Man (no I am not kidding) is searching for your luggage on the tarmac! it will be delivered shortly."
Well at this point we were very displeased. We had been at the airport now for about 7 hours, and were definitely not making our destination. But we waited another hour. And then another helpful announcement came on! "Sorry, passengers of flight 1168 to Toronto, but we have accidentally sent half of your luggage to Toronto. If you cannot find your luggage on carousel 5, it is in Toronto. Come to the lost baggage counter."
Well, fuck, our baggage was not, in fact, on carousel 5. So, increadingly morose, we lined up at the lost baggage counter. About 45 minutes later, we reached the front of the line. Sure enough, our baggage is in Toronto. And we are not. "Hmm," I wondered, "How is it that a plane was able to fly to Toronto with our bags on it, but not with us on it?" But at this point, we were getting to tired to care.
Then we noticed a man who had also been a passenger of the doomed flight 1168 to Toronto. He recognised us, and told us that lo and behold! He had been given a seat on a flight to Toronto that very evening, and was waiting to get on it! This was like a Christmas miracle! "How?" we asked, excited. Well, it turned out that some of the passengers on our doomed flight had been given secret magical phone numbers to call! Not all of us. But some! So this man kindly imparted his great secret phone number upon us. "Be patient," he advised, "It took me 2 hours to get through." This was very sad, because we have no cell phone. We cannot afford enough quarters to be on a pay phone at the airport for 2 or more hours.
But this man had a solution for that as well! "Go upstairs! Talk to someone at Air Canada ticketing! They are adding extra flights and trying to fit us all on them!" Amazing. The miracles kept coming! So happily, we went upstairs to find the Air Canada ticketing office.
I do not know how many people may be familiar with the Vancouver International Airport, but in my experience most airports are essentially the same. The Air Canada ticketing office was on the domestic departures level, near the Air Canada check ins. The international departures area is on the absolute opposite end of the airport, about a 5 minute walk away.
The line up for the Air Canada ticketing office, made up exclusively of other poor folks with doomed flights such as ourselves, stretched all the way to the international departures terminal. It was a very, very, very long line. One lady told us she had been waiting 5 hours so far! But we were very eager to get to Toronto, so we dutifully joined the lineup, thinking it was so great that we might get a flight tomorrow evening and make it in time for Christmas with the extended family.
So we waited. And we waited. And we waited some more. For hours. We made friends with the passengers around us in the line! We sang butchered Christmas carols about how we would like to get to our destinations, kthx. CBC came and I announced that I would love to tell the media my thoughts about our situation, so they turned on their big camera and I told them all about it. Apparently I made CBC national news, and I have had friends telling me they also saw me on CTV. At least I became a celebrity out of this ordeal!
Attention makes me very happy (I love attention), and so after being put on nationwide television, my spirits picked up somewhat. So much so that when a lady came down the line at 11pm, telling us all that they were closing the ticketing office for the evening, I was only mildly perturbed. This lady told us that they would be passing out blankets, bottled water, and ginger cookies. The ticket office would be open again at 4am, and then we could all get on flights! They were adding extra flights to Edmonton and Calgary, out of the goodness of their hearts!
"I am trying to go to Toronto," I told the lady, "are you adding extra flights to Toronto?" "Not yet! But we are working on it!" She replied confidently. Meanwhile, Malcolm returned from a walk he had gone on to assist his headache. "Good news, Malcolm!" I told him, "When the ticket office reopens at 4am, we will get on one of the planned extra flights to Toronto! We will make it for Christmas after all!"
Sadly, Malcolm had learned otherwise. While walking, he had strolled past the departures board back in the domestic terminal, and had found that a snow storm was forecast for tonight, and they were already canceling both the scheduled and extra flights.
At this point (about 11:30 at night) we said "fuck this." and gave up. We decided that even if we somehow managed to get on a plane on Christmas eve, we'd just have to turn around and head home two days later. And we had no interest in spending our entire Christmas, or at least the days leading up to it, at the Vancouver airport.
We went back downstairs, filed out papers to get our lost luggage delivered to us "in the next 24-48 hours", and took a cab home. We arrived back at our apartment at about 12:30. We spent over 12 hours in the airport, were offered no information, no help, no hospitality, nothing from Air Canada. And we're the lucky ones who are able to go home tonight.
There are still literally hundreds and hundreds of people stranded at the Vancouver airport tonight. Some have been there for as many as two or three days. There are people sleeping all over the benches and floor, anywhere they can find. These people will most likely not get flights home until after Christmas, and will spend the holidays in an airport, many alone.
There were families with small children and infants. I overheard one poor young man saying politely to an Air Canada representative, "We are out of diapers and formula. We need help." I'm not sure what happened to him.
There were definitely some good souls evident: many people were sharing their food with complete strangers, one man offered his home to as many people as could fit, and a couple I met in the restaurant were so touched by the story about the poor Australian family that they made a valiant attempt to track them down and offer them their own seats (on West Jet).
Today the weather was fine in Vancouver, and I hear it was fine in Toronto as well. We still have no idea why, but Air Canada canceled almost every flight they had scheduled for the last two to three days. However, lots of bags managed to make it to their owners' destinations. West Jet had flights flying successfully across the country. Flights were coming in from across the country. So I ask you, why did Air Canada fail so many people so badly?
We're lucky, we're going to try and get a turkey and put up our tree tomorrow and have Christmas together at home with our pets. But please take a moment to think about all the hundreds of families still stranded with no idea when and how they'll be leaving, and very little likelihood of any compensation.
It's a really good thing that Vancouver isn't about to host a huge number of people for an event of international concern, which will involve thousands of people flying in and out in the midst of winter...oh wait. Crap.
Our plane was supposed to leave for Toronto at 3pm today. There have been lots of delays due to the weather, so we got there early to make sure we got checked in and stuff, because traffic at the airport was supposedly crazy due to the season and layovers and stuff.
We waited in line 45 minutes to get checked in. We did so successfully. We went to our gate! There was a plane there. We found out every plane to Toronto had been canceled today, except for ours. "But for the grace of God!" Said us, "We are so lucky to be on this plane!"
A woman started boarding our plane! It was excellent. "We will begin boarding in a moment, have your passes and IDs ready please!" She said. "Oh, lovely!" said I. I called my mother to happily inform her that we were about to get on the plane, no problem. "Oh, good!" She said. "I was worried!"
A few minutes go by and the lady comes on again. "I'm sorry!" She says, "I was wrong. This is not our plane after all. You must go to gate C51! This plane here has too much fuel." A lot of people start groaning and bitching. I thought this was a bit of an overreaction. "All they have to do is walk to another gate, why must they complain so?" I said to Malcolm, confounded.
We arrived at our new gate to find hundreds of people sitting and waiting. There was nowhere for us to sit, even on the floor. There was nobody at the desk at this gate, and people looked quite unhappy. Again, there was a plane at this gate. "This is your plane!" The lady on the announcements said. We asked some other people about why there were so many people waiting, and were told that these were all the people from the earlier canceled flights, and they were on standby and trying to get on our plane. "Oh, that is so sad! Those poor people!" I said.
After waiting for about half an hour, a lady finally walked up to the desk. She was quite surprised that nobody else was here, helping us and updating us. She immediately made an announcement: "Don't worry! That is your plane! We will begin boarding in...wait, why are they pulling the bridge from it?" She made a phone call and came back on the intercom: "I am so sorry!" She said, sounding sorry indeed. "That is not your plane! That plane is going to go away and a new plane will come and then we will board. Our plane will be about 45 minutes late, I apologise profusely!"
Oh, well, that was unfortunate. But we were cheerful enough. We were glad that of all the planes to Toronto today, our was the only one flying. Meanwhile, all the standby people were told that the plane was now full, and that they should give up and go wait in a different waiting area. At this point many people burst into tears and got very angry. It turned out that some of them were trying to get home with babies; one couple had flown in from Brisbane that morning to visit their daughter in Toronto, and they were now being told that they would not make a plane until after Christmas.
After listening to all these sad stories and feeling very bad for these people, we sat. And waited. For a long time. The screen at the desk that told us the time our plane was delayed until went blank. The woman behind the desk disappeared. Suddenly, a lot of people start getting text messages: Apparently our plane has been canceled too. About an hour later, after waiting and wondering with absolutely nobody to advise us, finally a group of stern-faced ladies came and told us the following:
*The plane was canceled.
*They didn't know why. Maybe weather. They might also be out of de-icing fluid.
*All the rest of the planes flying to Toronto before Christmas were full.
*No, we could not get our money back. Well, maybe, if we had good insurance.
*Our best bet was to get a hotel and wait until after Christmas.
As one can imagine, this provoked a lot of crying and anger and yelling. People were not happy. Maybe people were now stranded in Vancouver, with no family around, nowhere to stay, and no hopes of getting home for Christmas.
Malcolm and I were very sad, and very angry. However, we recognised that at least we are "stranded" in our city of residence, and while we could just go home and feel sorry for ourselves, most of these people were out of luck for the holidays. We were very disappointed that we wouldn't make it to Toronto (where his entire paternal family is gathered for a Christmas reunion), but acknowledged our fortune. So we had a cry and a sulk, and trotted off to find our luggage.
The luggage area was a madhouse. There were bags literally everywhere: on the carousels, the seats, piled all over the floor, and there were hundreds of people searching amongst the piles for their bags. "Oh fun," we said. After an hour or so of searching fruitlessly, an announcement came on. "Passengers of flight 1168 to Toronto!" it said, "Mr. Man (no I am not kidding) is searching for your luggage on the tarmac! it will be delivered shortly."
Well at this point we were very displeased. We had been at the airport now for about 7 hours, and were definitely not making our destination. But we waited another hour. And then another helpful announcement came on! "Sorry, passengers of flight 1168 to Toronto, but we have accidentally sent half of your luggage to Toronto. If you cannot find your luggage on carousel 5, it is in Toronto. Come to the lost baggage counter."
Well, fuck, our baggage was not, in fact, on carousel 5. So, increadingly morose, we lined up at the lost baggage counter. About 45 minutes later, we reached the front of the line. Sure enough, our baggage is in Toronto. And we are not. "Hmm," I wondered, "How is it that a plane was able to fly to Toronto with our bags on it, but not with us on it?" But at this point, we were getting to tired to care.
Then we noticed a man who had also been a passenger of the doomed flight 1168 to Toronto. He recognised us, and told us that lo and behold! He had been given a seat on a flight to Toronto that very evening, and was waiting to get on it! This was like a Christmas miracle! "How?" we asked, excited. Well, it turned out that some of the passengers on our doomed flight had been given secret magical phone numbers to call! Not all of us. But some! So this man kindly imparted his great secret phone number upon us. "Be patient," he advised, "It took me 2 hours to get through." This was very sad, because we have no cell phone. We cannot afford enough quarters to be on a pay phone at the airport for 2 or more hours.
But this man had a solution for that as well! "Go upstairs! Talk to someone at Air Canada ticketing! They are adding extra flights and trying to fit us all on them!" Amazing. The miracles kept coming! So happily, we went upstairs to find the Air Canada ticketing office.
I do not know how many people may be familiar with the Vancouver International Airport, but in my experience most airports are essentially the same. The Air Canada ticketing office was on the domestic departures level, near the Air Canada check ins. The international departures area is on the absolute opposite end of the airport, about a 5 minute walk away.
The line up for the Air Canada ticketing office, made up exclusively of other poor folks with doomed flights such as ourselves, stretched all the way to the international departures terminal. It was a very, very, very long line. One lady told us she had been waiting 5 hours so far! But we were very eager to get to Toronto, so we dutifully joined the lineup, thinking it was so great that we might get a flight tomorrow evening and make it in time for Christmas with the extended family.
So we waited. And we waited. And we waited some more. For hours. We made friends with the passengers around us in the line! We sang butchered Christmas carols about how we would like to get to our destinations, kthx. CBC came and I announced that I would love to tell the media my thoughts about our situation, so they turned on their big camera and I told them all about it. Apparently I made CBC national news, and I have had friends telling me they also saw me on CTV. At least I became a celebrity out of this ordeal!
Attention makes me very happy (I love attention), and so after being put on nationwide television, my spirits picked up somewhat. So much so that when a lady came down the line at 11pm, telling us all that they were closing the ticketing office for the evening, I was only mildly perturbed. This lady told us that they would be passing out blankets, bottled water, and ginger cookies. The ticket office would be open again at 4am, and then we could all get on flights! They were adding extra flights to Edmonton and Calgary, out of the goodness of their hearts!
"I am trying to go to Toronto," I told the lady, "are you adding extra flights to Toronto?" "Not yet! But we are working on it!" She replied confidently. Meanwhile, Malcolm returned from a walk he had gone on to assist his headache. "Good news, Malcolm!" I told him, "When the ticket office reopens at 4am, we will get on one of the planned extra flights to Toronto! We will make it for Christmas after all!"
Sadly, Malcolm had learned otherwise. While walking, he had strolled past the departures board back in the domestic terminal, and had found that a snow storm was forecast for tonight, and they were already canceling both the scheduled and extra flights.
At this point (about 11:30 at night) we said "fuck this." and gave up. We decided that even if we somehow managed to get on a plane on Christmas eve, we'd just have to turn around and head home two days later. And we had no interest in spending our entire Christmas, or at least the days leading up to it, at the Vancouver airport.
We went back downstairs, filed out papers to get our lost luggage delivered to us "in the next 24-48 hours", and took a cab home. We arrived back at our apartment at about 12:30. We spent over 12 hours in the airport, were offered no information, no help, no hospitality, nothing from Air Canada. And we're the lucky ones who are able to go home tonight.
There are still literally hundreds and hundreds of people stranded at the Vancouver airport tonight. Some have been there for as many as two or three days. There are people sleeping all over the benches and floor, anywhere they can find. These people will most likely not get flights home until after Christmas, and will spend the holidays in an airport, many alone.
There were families with small children and infants. I overheard one poor young man saying politely to an Air Canada representative, "We are out of diapers and formula. We need help." I'm not sure what happened to him.
There were definitely some good souls evident: many people were sharing their food with complete strangers, one man offered his home to as many people as could fit, and a couple I met in the restaurant were so touched by the story about the poor Australian family that they made a valiant attempt to track them down and offer them their own seats (on West Jet).
Today the weather was fine in Vancouver, and I hear it was fine in Toronto as well. We still have no idea why, but Air Canada canceled almost every flight they had scheduled for the last two to three days. However, lots of bags managed to make it to their owners' destinations. West Jet had flights flying successfully across the country. Flights were coming in from across the country. So I ask you, why did Air Canada fail so many people so badly?
We're lucky, we're going to try and get a turkey and put up our tree tomorrow and have Christmas together at home with our pets. But please take a moment to think about all the hundreds of families still stranded with no idea when and how they'll be leaving, and very little likelihood of any compensation.
It's a really good thing that Vancouver isn't about to host a huge number of people for an event of international concern, which will involve thousands of people flying in and out in the midst of winter...oh wait. Crap.